Obama says public service would be 'central cause' of presidency

COLORADO SPRINGS — Senator Barack Obama issued a call Wednesday for more Americans to become involved in public service, imploring citizens of all ages to rally to the country's needs at home and abroad.

"I will ask for your service and your active citizenship when I am president of the United States," Obama said at a campus of the University of Colorado. "This will not be a call issued in one speech or one program - this will be a central cause of my presidency."

But as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee continued a carefully scripted week-long agenda intended to highlight his patriotism and values, he faced an intense backlash among some of his most ardent supporters that threatened to reduce the vital intensity of support he has enjoyed from them.

They were angered by his decision, seemingly part of a calculated move to the center ahead of the November elections, to support legislation granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with the Bush administration's program of wiretapping without warrants.

In Colorado, Obama renewed his call to increase the size of the military by asking "a new generation of Americans to serve." He said he would expand the AmeriCorps program - which sends adult volunteers to do community, environmental and educational work in parks and cities across the country - from 75,000 slots to 250,000. He would also increase the size and scope of the better-known Peace Corps.

"The future of our nation depends on the soldier at Fort Carson, but it also depends on the teacher in East LA, the nurse in Appalachia, the after-school worker in New Orleans, the Peace Corps volunteer in Africa and the Foreign Service officer in Indonesia," Obama said.

"Americans have shown that they want to step up, but we're not keeping pace with the demand of those who want to serve."

The Illinois senator said he would set a goal for all middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for college students - who would receive a tax credit worth up to $4,000 - to serve twice that number of hours.

As anger percolated among Obama supporters over the warrantless eavesdropping issue, thousands of them have been expressing their protest using the same grass-roots organizing tools previously mastered by the Obama campaign.

More than 7,000 supporters have organized on a social networking site on the senator's own campaign Web site. They are calling on him to reverse his decision to endorse legislation to expand the government's domestic spying powers while also providing legal protection to the telecommunication companies that worked with the National Security Agency's domestic wiretapping program.

During the Democratic primary campaign, Obama vowed to fight such legislation to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.

But he now supports a compromise hammered out between the White House and the Democratic congressional leadership. The bill is expected to come to a vote on the Senate floor Tuesday. That decision has brought him into serious conflict for the first time with liberal bloggers and commentators and his young supporters.

Many of them have seen the issue of granting immunity to the telecommunications companies as a test of principle.

"I don't think there has been another instance where, in meaningful numbers, his supporters have opposed him like this," said Glenn Greenwald, a Salon.com writer who opposes Obama's new position. "For him to suddenly turn around and endorse this proposal is really a betrayal."

Jane Hamsher, a liberal blogger who also opposes immunity for the phone companies, said she had been flooded with messages from Obama supporters frustrated with his new stance.

"The opposition to Obama's position among his supporters is very widespread," said Hamsher, founder of the Web site firedoglake.com. "His promise to filibuster earlier in the year, and the decision to switch on that is seen as a real character problem. I know people who are really very big Obama supporters are very disillusioned."

The campaign is trying to put a positive spin on the new FISA fight among its supporters.

"The fact that there is an open forum on BarackObama.com where supporters can say whether they agree or disagree speaks to a strength of our campaign," said Bill Burton, a campaign spokesman.

Obama spent Monday in Missouri, Tuesday in Ohio and Wednesday in Colorado, and plans to visit North Dakota on Thursday and Montana on Friday. All states are ones that Obama believes he can make competitive in the general-election campaign against Senator John McCain of Arizona.